Safest Cities & States to Buy a Home in the U.S.

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When looking for a place to buy a home and start a family, considering safety is crucial. No family wants to constantly worry about the possibility of crime inside and out of their homes.

The safety of different areas in the United States varies greatly. Some have very little crime, while it is quite common in others.

To help prospective homebuyers decide where to buy a home, we analyzed the FBI’s crime database to find the safest (and most dangerous) cities, states, and regions of the U.S.

Note that the FBI did not have data for certain cities and states because they did not report or because of suspected misreporting.

To find the final safety score of each area, we considered violent crime rates (2.33x weight) as well as the rate of all other crimes (1x weight). All crime numbers were weighted by the population of the respective areas.

For reference, on a national level there were 4.18 violent crimes and 62.85 other crimes per 1,000 residents.

Safest Cities in the United States

First, we looked at the safest cities in the U.S. on a national and state level. Only cities with at least 10,000 residents were included, leaving us with 1,246 in total.

Cities were ranked based on the rate of violent crime (2.33x weight) and the rate of all other crimes (1x weight). Cities with low crime rates had higher Safety Scores and vice-versa for those with high rates of crime.

Crime numbers were normalized by population to account for differing city sizes. The sixth and seventh columns show the number of crimes per one thousand residents.

To find the rankings in a specific state, click the State column header to sort by state or search the state abbreviation in the search bar. Note that states with abbreviations that are common in city names (such as “MA”) will return cities with that abbreviation in their name.

Safest States in the United States

Next, we ranked states based on their Safety Scores using the same weighting system. All towns and cities that the FBI had data for were included in the state rankings regardless of population. In total, 3,601 towns and cities were included in the state rankings.

Crime numbers were normalized by population to account for differing state sizes. The sixth and seventh columns show the number of crimes per one thousand residents.

Note that data was unavailable for some cities within the states listed as well as some states as a whole.

Safest Regional Divisions of the U.S.

Next, we used the state data shown above to rank regional divisions of the U.S. based on their Safety Scores using the same weighting system.

Crime numbers were normalized by population to account for differing state sizes. The sixth and seventh columns show the number of crimes per one thousand residents.

Note that data was unavailable for some cities as well as some states as a whole. The region that each division is a part of is included in parentheses after the division name.

Safest Regions of the U.S.

Next, we used the data shown above to rank regions of the U.S. based on their Safety Scores using the same weighting system.

Crime numbers were normalized by population to account for differing state sizes. The sixth and seventh columns show the number of crimes per one thousand residents.

Note that data was unavailable for some cities as well as some states as a whole.

Methodology

All of the data used in this report comes directly from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program for 2018. This program receives crime data from more than 18,000 city, university, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement programs on a voluntary basis.

Some cities and states did not report data to the FBI, while others were excluded if the FBI suspected over-reporting or under-reporting by the reporting agency. States excluded from the study include Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Wyoming, as well as Washington D.C.

Only cities with a population of at least 10,000 were included in the city rankings section of this report. Rankings of states, divisions, and regions included all cities that the FBI had data for, regardless of population.

The Safety Score was determined based on the rate of violent crimes (2.33x weight) and the rate of all other crimes (1x weight). Violent crimes, as defined by the FBI, include murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Total crime numbers were weighted by the number of residents to account for differing city sizes.

We defined regions and divisions of the U.S. based on the U.S. Census Bureau and are as follows:

Dave Rathmanner, a graduate of the University of Delaware, regularly plans and writes content about student loans, personal loans, credit cards, small business loans, mortgages, and a variety of other financial products. Dave’s work has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC, U.S. News, International Business Times, Consumer Reports, VICE, Yahoo Finance, NPR, and more.

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